+1 on Dave Ramsey. I am currently debt free except the house and am working on that. I never carried a lot of debt in the first place, but buying things with my money instead of other people's really allows me to be able to downsize my expenses immediately. And if it weren't for pride and a misguided sense of right and wrong I could walk away from teh house too.

I think the middle class actually includes both those sets of people though, all the people who have to keep working to keep up their lifestyle.

Where does someone who lives in a shack in the woods but only works 5 hours a week land on that scale? He has the leisure time of the ultra-rich, the access to everything he wants/needs of the well-to-do and a lower responsibility level than most anyone, if they choose.

I know a couple people who make in the $8-10 range and are perfectly happy and never plan on making more. Are they poor? I don't think it's that simple any more, if it ever was.

I'm a great believer in the Brown Peril, despite having three grandchildren who are mestizo/mulatto Hispanics. All of whom are great people by the way, despite what the American left would turn them into if given the chance.

By the way, the term Hispanic is PC for mixed race, as every 10 years the Census Bureau records 50% of Spanish surnamed individuals putting down their family's race as white and their country of origin as Spain, regardless of how many centuries they existed in Mexico, Peru, or Venezuela.

There is no creature on earth as intrinsically racist as the white (or almost white) Latino. Race, status, self image and, for the most part income are inversely proportionate to melanin content and facial features in Latin America, north and south.

They're a peril because the Democrats will turn them into something sadly familiar to anyone who has spent time around urban, American born Hispanics. Unwed mothers are the norm, with fathers in and out of jail and only loosely attached to their kids, and the almighty welfare check guarantees that the Bloombergs and Pelosis are the only voices listened to.

A recent Pew Poll pointed out that 2 of 3 Hispanics in the U.S. want the welfare state and don't feel the need to pay anything back.

1 Hispanic American in 3 votes Republican, and as a person with many friends in the Cuban community, I can promise you the difference between the conservative minority and liberal majority are the same differences in race, perceived class distinction, education, and work ethic you will find in Latin America.

Most of the illegals sneaking in right now are great people, but they are great people who will vote for the welfare state, and who's children and grandchildren will be indistinguishable from the broken, unproductive losers now filling up our barrios.

It's a sober thing to attend a wedding between an "Anglo" male and an Hispanic woman, where the bride is the only married woman in a large crowded ballroom filled with women and children, but no husbands and only a few boyfriends.

Give these folks the vote and it is literally the end of America, the final turning of the productive class into economic slaves.

Institute a serious Bracero program, so that workers can come here to gain employment, then freely return home when there isn't any. It will help stabilize both the U.S. and the parent countries.

Also, we are on the cusp of an entire new generation of low cost and flexible agricultural robots that will eliminate a healthy part of the work illegals do. That will only help displace former illegals onto the welfare roles even faster, and work to crush any semblance of work ethic in the next generation.

Let them come, and let them go. Biometrics are good enough to control the flow of regular migrant workers.

Make immigration competitive the way the Aussies have, and restrict it to people with needed job skills or those willing to invest lots of money in America.

Get rid of Chain Immigration. If your Momma or Uncle Tounoose back in the old country need a heart operation, finance it yourself or leave them to the tender ministrations of their own country.

20 years after arriving in the U.S., half of all immigrants are still on welfare. HALF.

Regardless of what we do, the world's economy is tanking around the end of this decade. Counting agriculture, movies, and banking as well as manufacturing, the U.S. is the largest exporter in the world. The crash will hit us hard, especially in the big bucks areas like aerospace and computer hardware and software.

I actually think my quip above about the Brown Peril residing at PA ave. being the greater threat than the one from South of the border is accurate, not that the two are unrelated as you point out in your piece.

And further to that, in response to a comment at Tam's prior post regarding the Zimmerman trial and post-acquittal aftermath, I said:

"Check you facts...uprisings in the middle east have zero in common with the riots in Greece and other EU countries like...Sweden for crying out loud.

The Arab world is and has been at war with internal factions for centuries, while the EU is set aflame by external factions who were invited in for free ice cream and are majorly pissed that it's all been eaten.

What we are in for is a major portion of the former, with a goodly dose of the latter added in."

We get the best of both worlds! Glad I won't be in it that much longer.